37th Palm Springs International Film Festival

37th Palm Springs International Film Festival

Official poster
Opening film	Calle Málaga
Closing film	Glenrothan
Location	Palm Springs, California, United States
Hosted by	The Palm Springs International Film Society
Artistic director	Lili Rodriguez
No. of films	168 films from 72 countries
Festival date	Opening: 2 January 2026 (2026-01-02) Closing: 12 January 2026 (2026-01-12)
Website	www.psfilmfest.org
Palm Springs International Film Festival
2027 2025

The 37th Palm Springs International Film Festival will take place from January 2 to 12, 2026, in Palm Springs, California, United States. The festival will open with Maryam Touzani's Spanish drama film Calle Malaga . This edition of the festival will present 168 films from 72 countries, including 53 premieres and 44 Oscar Submissions. It will close with Brian Cox's British drama film Glenrothan . ^[1]

Official selection

This edition will showcase 168 films from 72 countries. ^{[2] [3]}

Opening and closing films

The opening and closing films of the festival are: ^[4]

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Opening film
Calle Málaga		Maryam Touzani	Morocco, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium
Closing film
Glenrothan		Brian Cox	United Kingdom

Awards Buzz – Best International Feature Films

The following section consists of submissions for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards: ^[5]

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Submission countrie(s)
100 Litres of Gold		Teemu Nikki	Finland
2000 Meters to Andriivka		Mstyslav Chernov	Ukraine
All That's Left of You	اللي باقي منك	Cherien Dabis	Jordan
Belén		Dolores Fonzi	Argentina
Beloved Tropic	Querido trópico	Ana Endara	Panama
Eagles of the Republic		Tarik Saleh	Sweden
Familia		Francesco Costabile	Italy
Father	Otec	Tereza Nvotová	Slovakia
Franz		Agnieszka Holland	Poland
Happy Birthday	هابي بيرث داي	Sarah Goher	Egypt
Hijra	هجری	Shahad Ameen	Saudi Arabia
Homebound		Neeraj Ghaywan	India
It Was Just an Accident	یک تصادف ساده	Jafar Panahi	France
Kokuho	国宝	Lee Sang-il	Japan
The Last Dance	破．地獄	Anselm Chan Mou Yin	Hong Kong
Late Shift	Heldin	Petra Volpe	Switzerland
Left-Handed Girl	左撇子女孩	Shih-Ching Tsou	Taiwan
Little Trouble Girls	Kaj ti je deklica	Urška Djukić	Slovenia
The Love That Remains	Ástin Sem Eftir Er	Hlynur Pálmason	Iceland
Magellan	Magalhães	Lav Diaz	Philippines
Mr. Nobody Against Putin		David Borenstein  [ d ]	Denmark
My Father's Shadow		Akinola Davies Jr.	United Kingdom
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo	La misteriosa mirada del flamenco	Diego Céspedes	Chile
No Other Choice	어쩔수가없다	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Orphan	Árva	László Nemes	Hungary
Palestine 36		Annemarie Jacir	Palestine
A Poet	Un Poeta	Simón Mesa Soto	Colombia
The President's Cake	مملكة القصب	Hasan Hadi	Iraq
Reedland	Rietland	Sven Bresser	Netherlands
A Sad and Beautiful World	نجوم الأمل و الألم	Cyril Aris	Lebanon
The Sea	הים	Shai Carmeli-Pollak	Israel
The Secret Agent	O Agente Secreto	Kleber Mendonça Filho	Brazil
Sirāt		Oliver Laxe	Spain
Sound of Falling	In die Sonne schauen	Mascha Schilinski	Germany
The Tale of Silyan	Силјан	Tamara Kotevska	North Macedonia
The Things You Kill		Alireza Khatami	Canada
The Tower of Strength	Obraz	Nikola Vukčević	Montenegro
Traffic	Reostat	Teodora Ana Mihai	Romania
Under the Flags, the Sun	Bajo las banderas, el sol	Juanjo Pereira	Paraguay
A Useful Ghost	ผีใช้ได้ค่ะ	Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke	Thailand
The Voice of Hind Rajab	صوت هند رجب	Kaouther Ben Hania	Tunisia
Young Mothers	Jeunes mères	Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne	Belgium

After Dark

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
The Book of Sijjin & Illiyyin		Hadrah Daeng Ratu	Indonesia
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die		Gore Verbinski	United States, Germany, South Africa

American Indies

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the American Indies section:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Burt		Joe Burke	United States
Fantasy Life		Matthew Shear

Close-Ups

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the Close-Ups section:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Boorman and the Devil		David Kittredge	United States
Coroner to Stars		Ben Hethcoat, Keita Ideno

Country Focus

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the Country Focus section:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Amrum		Fatih Akin	Germany
What Marielle Knows	Was Marielle weiß	Frédéric Hambalek	Germany

Family Day

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the Family Day section:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Arco		Ugo Bienvenu	France
KPop Demon Hunters		Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans	United States
Zootopia 2		Jared Bush, Byron Howard	United States

Gateway Cinema

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the Gateway Cinema section:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Casablanca (1942)		Michael Curtiz	United States
Fire (1996)		Deepa Mehta	India
In the Mood for Love (2000)	花樣年華	Wong Kar-wai	Hong Kong, France
Medea (1988)		Lars von Trier	Denmark

Local Spotlight

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the Local Spotlight section:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Ramona and the Ballad of Juan Diego		Jason Sklaver	United States

Modern Masters

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the Modern Masters section:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Below the Clouds	Sotto le nuvole	Gianfranco Rosi	Italy
The Captive	El cautivo	Alejandro Amenábar	Spain, Italy
Cover-Up		Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus	United States
Dreams		Michel Franco	Mexico, United States
Hen	Kota	György Pálfi	Germany, Greece, Hungary
The Last Viking	Den Sidste Viking	Anders Thomas Jensen	Denmark, Sweden
A Magnificent Life	Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol	Sylvain Chomet	France, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, United States
Orwell: 2+2=5		Raoul Peck	France, United States
The Soundman		Frank Van Passel	Belgium,Netherlands, Denmark
Two Prosecutors	Два прокурора	Sergei Loznitsa	Latvia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Romania, Lithuania
Yes!	כן!	Nadav Lapid	Israel, France, Germany, Cyprus, United Kingdom

New Voices New Visions

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the New Voices New Visions competition:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Broken Voices	Sbormistr	Ondřej Provazník	Czech Republic, Slovakia
Deaf	Sorda	Eva Libertad	Spain
God Will Not Help	Bog Neće Pomoći	Hana Jušić	Croatia, Italy, Romania, Greece, France, Slovenia
Lucky Lu		Lloyd Lee Choi	United States, Canada
Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)		Joel Alfonso Vargas	United States
The Nature of Invisible Things	A natureza das coisas invisíveis	Rafaela Camelo	Brazil, Chile
The Negotiator		Alessandro Tonda	Italy
On the Sea		Helen Walsh	United Kingdom
Silent Rebellion	À bras-le-corps	Marie-Elsa Sgualdo	Switzerland, Belgium, France

Queer Cinema Today & The Gayla

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the Queer Cinema Today section and The Gayla:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
3670		Park Joon-ho	South Korea
Dope Queens		Grafton Doyle	United States
The Little Sister	La Petite Dernière	Hafsia Herzi	France, Germany

Special Presentations

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the Special Presentations section:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Dead Man's Wire		Gus Van Sant	United States
Hamlet		Aneil Karia	United States, United Kingdom

True Stories

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the True Stories section:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Adaptation to Darkness	הסתגלות לאפלה	Shay Fogelman	Israel
ASCO: Without Permission		Travis Gutiérrez Senger	United States, United Kingdom
Ask E. Jean		Ivy Meeropol	United States
Modern Whore		Nicole Bazuin	Canada
Natchez		Suzannah Herbert	United States

World Cinema Now

The following films were selected to be screened as part of the World Cinema Now section:

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production countrie(s)
Altar Boys	Ministranci	Piotr Domalewski	Poland
The Battle of Oslo	Blücher	Daniel Fahre	Norway
Beginnings	Begyndelser	Jeanette Nordahl	Denmark
The Blue Trail	O Último Azul	Gabriel Mascaro	Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Netherlands
Colours of Time	La Venue de l'avenir	Cédric Klapisch	France, Belgium
Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t	Come ti muovi, sbagli	Gianni Di Gregorio	Italy, France
Frontier	Frontera	Judith Colell	Spain, Belgium
Fuze		David Mackenzie	United Kingdom
Gustaakh Ishq	Gustaakh Ishq: Kuch Pehle Jaisa	Vibhu Puri	India
H Is for Hawk		Philippa Lowthorpe	United Kingdom, United States
Hello Betty	Hallo Betty	Pierre Monnard	Switzerland
A Private Life	Vie privée	Rebecca Zlotowski	France

Awards

Opening Gala Awards

Adam Sandler recipient of Chairman's Award

The following awards were presented to honor the performance of actors, directors and producers during 2025 at Opening Gala on January 3, 2026. ^[6]

• Vanguard Award: Hamnet (Chloé Zhao, Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal) ^[7]
• Icon Award: Michael B. Jordan, American actor, producer, and director for Sinners ^[8]
• Chairman's Award: Adam Sandler for Jay Kelly ^[9]

• Desert Palm Achievement for Best Actress: Amanda Seyfried for The Testament of Ann Lee ^[10]
• Desert Palm Achievement for Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another ^[11]
• Career Achievement Award: Ethan Hawke, American actor, author and film director ^[12]
• International Star Award: The award will be presented to an ensemble of Sentimental Value , Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning.

References

1. McGowan, Andrew (December 2, 2025). "'Calle Malaga' and 'Glenrothan' to Bookend 2026 Palm Springs International Film Festival". Variety . Retrieved December 4, 2025.
2. Abbatescianni, Davide (December 3, 2025). "European Film Awards and Oscars contenders heading to the 37th Palm Springs International Film Festival". Cineuropa . Retrieved December 4, 2025.
3. Reyes, Jesus (December 2, 2025). "Palm Springs International Film Festival announces lineup of 168 films". KESQ News Channel 3 . Retrieved December 4, 2025.
4. Chris Gardner (December 2, 2025). "Maryam Touzani's 'Calle Malaga' to Open and Brian Cox's 'Glenrothan' to Close Palm Springs Film Fest". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved December 4, 2025.
5. "Awards Buzz – Best International Feature Film". Palm Springs International Film Festival . December 2, 2025. Retrieved December 4, 2025.
6. Pedersen, Erik (December 1, 2025). "Palm Springs Film Festival Awards: Amanda Seyfried To Receive Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress". Deadline . Retrieved December 4, 2025.
7. Pedersen, Erik (November 20, 2025). "Chloé Zhao's 'Hamnet' Set For Palm Springs Film Festival's 2026 Vanguard Award". Deadline . Retrieved December 4, 2025.
8. Verhoeven, Beatrice (November 11, 2025). "'Sinners' Star Michael B. Jordan to Receive Icon Award at Palm Springs International Film Festival". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved December 4, 2025.
9. Verhoeven, Beatrice (November 7, 2025). "'Jay Kelly' Star Adam Sandler to Receive Chairman's Award at Palm Springs International Film Festival". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved December 4, 2025.
10. Mendoza, Leia (December 4, 2025). "Amanda Seyfried to Be Honored With Desert Palm Actress Prize at Palm Springs International Film Awards (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety . Retrieved December 1, 2025.
11. Pedersen, Erik (November 18, 2025). "Leonardo DiCaprio Set for Palm Springs Film Festival's Desert Palm Achievement Award". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved December 4, 2025.
12. Verhoeven, Beatrice (November 24, 2025). "Ethan Hawke to Receive Career Achievement Award at Palm Springs International Film Festival (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved December 4, 2025.

External links

• Official website